


Red Thread (Don´t worry, you won´t remember)

by LittleFallingStar (LittleDevil)



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Angst, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Been playing around with this idea for a while, Drabble, Fix-it-ish?, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Thread of Destiny, Unbetaed because I wrote it at work, i guess, of course messing with fate will have repercussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-10 07:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18655543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDevil/pseuds/LittleFallingStar
Summary: The red thread that spun around her finger never conected her to a soulmate. It meant she´d die alone. She should have known that she wasn´t supposed to live a happy life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I´ve been playing around with this idea, changing destiny and fate and stuff, but you know, shit comes at a cost  
> Might work with this in the future  
> Probably wont  
> Anyway you´re welcome to use this idea if you like it.

She rewrote their destinies. One stitch of her red thread at a time. Of course they'd never know how often she saved them, averted their theoretically inescapable deaths with the needle she had inherited from her great-great grandmother. The needle made from the bone of a living god. And the tapestry. The simultaneously most beautiful and most terrible thing of all. Tended to by her family for generations. In secret. 

 

Her great-grandmother summoned her when she was 16. Shortly after having nearly died herself to Sasori's hands, it had been decided to bring her into the fold. She had always seen the red thread that spun around her finger, but she had assumed it would be connected to a soulmate or something. It wasn´t. 

 

When she was taught how to mend the tapestry , and as was custom, she was forced to leave her worldly life behind. Subsequently she terminated her apprenticeship with Tsunade, retired from active Shinobi-duty and simply left for The Temple. If she didn't have her own plans with what to do with her newly acquired power, she wouldn't have done it. She didn't care that she wasn't supposed to change a thing, merely to mend it, when someone changed destiny too harshly or died unexpectedly. 

 

Fortunately her great-grandmother passed shortly and with nobody to supervise, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Kakashi wouldn't die facing Sasuke, neither would Tsunade die. Danzo, that slimy bastard, who was apparently responsible for the Uchiha massacre however would die and fast. While Itachi would live. Neji  would survive. Kagura would never rise and with a fast move of her needle, black Zetzu was trapped outside her tapestry forever. His tread not cut, that wouldn't work, but securely out of commision. She made Obito realize his mistakes. 

 

She would save them as long as her own thread afforded her the power to change their lives for the better was worth more than her own measly years and she would gladly give her life, her destiny to mend and change what was broken in theirs. She knew what it meant for her. She would die young and in obscurity, remembered as the traitor to their cause, the one who would rather become matriarch and high priestess of her “civilian” clan, the scum that had abandoned her teammates and village. They couldn't understand it. They knew she wasn't religious. 

 

Naruto had tried to dissuade her of course. To coax her back into active duty. He couldn't. Nobody could. They didn't know that she could change more, save more with just a few stitches than she ever did during a 30 hour hospital shift. It was lonely though. Granted, after the first 10 attempts to change her mind, she had simply stop receiving her friends. Kept to the sanktum where the tapestry was spun. She made them forget her as to spare them the pain of her memory. And as her own thread became thinner and much much shorter, her village flourished. Naruto and all the others flourished. 

 

They were 23 when Naruto and Sasuke become Co-Hokage. She, however named a successor. If she continued using her remaining thread like this, she'd have half a year left at the most, if she didn´t it might have even been ten years. Training her cousin, she made sure to teach her exactly what she was taught. Nobody knew how the silkworms spun the tapestry. Don´t change a thing. Only mend the tapestry when for some reason a thread unraveled. Make sure there are no holes. Don't overuse your thread. Only feed the worms blessed sake on fullmoon nights.

 

Her cousin was only 12 but she understood. She had studied the tapestry, the past, knew what Sakura had done, knew what she continued to do. She disapproved, especially of Sakura´s choice to make her friends forget her, but understood. Hikari was gifted. While Sakura had  learned the “gift” to read it, Hikari took a look and knew everything, felt everything. She swore to keep Sakura´s changes, even when her part of the tapestry, short as it may be spanning only 7 years was the messiest part of all. As thanks Sakura made some minute additions. There was still a lot to do, to stitch before she died.  The hyuga where still in the process of changing their clan policies. The Uzumaki had returned, because as it turned out there were more survivors and the fact that Naruto had become Hokage drew them to the village. 

 

She couldn't change what would happen in the future, it wasn't spun yet, but she could prepare them for it. With her last remaining stitches she killed off Kaguyas immediate relations and gave Kakashi peace. Naruto´s smile was the last thing she saw before her thread ended. She smiled as she fell asleep.  



	2. The memory that lingers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I know I said this would be like all there was but basically I thought I'd make it more sad

  

Ino wondered briefly why she felt sad, as if something vital was missing. When she conveyed that feeling to her husband who sat beside her the couch, Sai shrugged.

“Perhaps you miss the traitor.”

“Why would I miss Sasuke - he's been back for years.”

Sai only cocked an eyebrow.

“Not Sasuke. I meant your ex-best friend, Sakura. She died earlier this month. It was in the papers, seeing as she was apparently the godaimes apprentice, not that many remember that.”

Ino felt herself snap to attention.

“Sakura? I don't remember anybody of that name. That can't be right.”

Sai, already used to that look on his wives face immediately caught on. 

“What do you think? A genjutsu to forget her?”

Ino wobbled to her feet, already considering all the angles. She wasn't head of T &  I for nothing. “It's possible. Can you help me with the jacket love?”

He obliged easily, his hand lingering on her stomach for a second afterwards. 

“Just don't overexert yourself Ino, and let me help. I will see what information I can dig up with the Hokages.”

She smiled against his lips as she kissed him goodbye.

“I´ll see you at my office in 3 hours at the latest.”

“Of course. I´ll bring dinner.

 

The guards had eyed her with a knowing smirk when she breezed into the building on her day off. There was always something to work on and she was a workaholic. As she walked down the steps towards the archive, she tried to come up with something, anything about this Sakura. Nothing but a lingering melancholy came up.

 

Three hours later Ino was convinced that something was VERY wrong. Sakura had been her best friend, well into their teens. 7 years ago she'd suddenly vanished from everything. There had been an intern investigation in T&I but it had stopped after a generous donation to the village from the Haruno family, along with the request to let the Clan Head follow her religious duties. They let the investigation fall and nobody talked about it ever again.

She had checked with her father. He had been surprised, but told her everything he knew, which was quite a bit.

“I'm sorry Ino, I assumed you didn't want to talk about her.”

She dismissed his apology. He couldn't have known. 

 

When Sai arrived with Naruto and Sasuke in tow, she knew she was right.

 

“She was our teammate, Ino-chan. And we can't even remember her. Not even Sasuke.”

“Nobody she had much contact to does. I think it's time to visit her family.”

  
  


Her family was anything, but forthcoming. They were stopped at the door and told to leave it alone. Them. The hokages and the head of T&I. That was the biggest red flag they could´ve waved.

 

“Ino. This is now an official investigation. I expect your mission request at noon. Put every detail you have on the sheet. I already know whom to send. Also, I´ll send over anything we have on her in the Hokage-archives.”

Naruto nodded at his fellow Hokage.

“You gonna send Dumbass, Pervy and Weasel?”

“They are our best operatives. Of course I´ll send them.”

Ino was awed. She hadn't expected Sasuke to be this invested, but considering Sakura had also been his teammate, she wondered if he felt guilty. 

“I´ll put everything together.”

  
  


It had been a while since Kakashi had stood in front of the memorial stone. 3 years to be precise. Since Obito had come back to the village, broken and damaged, but alive, he hadn't felt like he had to talk to ghosts. He was sure that Rin was smiling down at him. Now he wasn't so sure.

How could he have forgotten his student? While it looked as if she had abandoned her team at first glance it reeked of a cover up. Asuma had agreed with him, as had Kurenai. They still remembered his pink haired student as a bright and self-sacrificing young woman. He feared exactly that might have been her downfall.

“You ready taicho?”

Obito and Itachi had silently landed behind him. Of course both knew where to find him. 

“I'm not sure. It appears as if security will be lax. They won't see us coming. The Haruno don't employ any ninja to guard their compound or the temple. Does anybody know, what exactly they're worshipping?”

The was silence, when suddenly Itachi spoke up.

“I heard a rumor once. When I was still with Akatsuki. Hidan mumbled something about his god Jashin being angry at one of the priestesses tasked with guarding fate for changing everything. He was angry he couldn't just go over to Konoha to kill her. Could it be Sakura was that priestess?”

Both Obito and Kakashi stared at him with horror. The implications.

“Changing fate, as in that legend with the rug of destiny?”

Obito always found the right words.

“I think it was a tapestry, but yes.”

The spend a moment in silence, before Kakashi let out a sigh.

“We´ll have to find out. I´ll see you here at 2200 sharp. Bring your masks. The blank ones. This is purely gathering of information. No civilian comes to harm.”

“Yes, captain.”

While Obito left, Itachi remained.

“If she really was capable of changing fate, do you think she cured me? And brought me back?”

“I would imagine so.”

  
  
  


Hikari knew they were coming. She was a master of the tapestry, so of course she did. She didn't obstruct them. They should know what her cousin had done for them. Why she had left them.It wasn't fair that they had forgotten her, after everything Sakura had done for the world, for them. Hikari would swear them to secrecy, but tell them everything. Sakura deserved people to remember her for what she did, even when it went entirely against her clans tenets. Even if the world couldn't know, the people who had loved her cousin would. 

  
  
  


They stood in a small circle around her grave. Everyone who´d known her better had come, some who didn't. What they had in common was that they owed her their lives. Naruto and Ino were bawling their eyes out. Kakashi stood there his face a stoic mask. Sasuke stared angrily at her headstone. Tsunade and Shizune had taken time off the hospital to attend. Shizune was crying while Tsunades blank face betrayed nothing. Only her red-rimmed eyes gave her away.

Hikari had given them their memories back, as well as told them every single change Sakura had made with her remaining life force.

Obito was considering to reincarnate her with Orochimarus jutsu just to let Naruto yell at her, and he wasn't the only one.

“You didn't have to do this Sakura.,”, Naruto whispered.

“But she did it anyway,”, Kakashi replied. It was Rin all over again. 

He had failed her.

All of them had failed her.

 


	3. You should know you can't save them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok this is the last one I promise xD
> 
> Read at your own peril - this is NOT A HAPPY STORY

    

Sakura had´t expected the afterlife to quite like this, which was to say horrifying. Since she´d apparently incurred the wrath of the god she was supposed to represent, Jashin (and wasn't that a terrible thought -  she was punished relentlessly, and by her ancestors no less. There was, as she soon came to understand no reprise. The dead didn't tire, nor die, but the felt pain and boy did they show her how unhappy they were with her interference.  The pain never stopped, the insults, the horrifying visions the showed her. After the first month, she wasn't sure if time actually existed, but it could have been a month, they realized that while the pain was excruciating, it wouldn't break her. The resorted to psychological torture then. Showing her friends, her family dying horribly, or them suffering because of the changes she had made. The worst thing was it was all very probable. she didn't know whether it was the truth or not. That was what broke her in the end.

 

  
It was Ino who summoned her back in the end. She shouldn't have done it, Hikari had warned them. Sakura had mercy-killed too many of her spectre-friends. She couldn't differentiate between reality and illusion any longer. The centuries she'd spent dead, because it was centuries for her, even if it was just 3 years for everyone else, had driven her truly and utterly mad. All Sakura could see was her best friend Ino, probably about to get killed again in some horrifying way, so she lurched forward and severed Ino´s head on the spot. It wasn't until she saw Sai horrified expression, Naruto´s eyes widened in terror and all her other friends that she realised her mistake.

“No.”

“NOOOOOO!”

As the last beat of the jutsus casters heart sounded and it dispelled, Sakura realized that the killed her best friend..

 

Nobody ever bothered to torture her again. Jashin however was pleased. 

 

He always won in the end.


End file.
